Stories Along the Way

Originally written in 2019

I wanted to put all of my guinea pigs into one housing area—except for 10-year-old Jess, who is enjoying her retirement home—so I wouldn’t have to spend my weekends cleaning several different houses.

Simple plan.

Or so I thought.

First, we had the three boys desexed. Then we resurfaced the floor underneath the main guinea pig house and replaced the crumbling walls.

But while I was busy improving everything for the guinea pigs, I suddenly felt guilty.

I realised I had been doing all sorts of things for them, but I hadn’t done anything new for the birds in years.

So naturally, the birds had to get renovations too.

I replaced their old perches with natural branches and rearranged their little aviary world.

And just like that, my supposedly weekend job stretched into another two days.

I’d say the birds approved. They immediately started exploring their new perches and seemed very pleased with the upgrade.

The guinea pigs, however, were a different story.

I assumed that after having the boys desexed, they would lose interest in the girls.

Apparently nobody explained this to the boys.

The first day I introduced them, they went on a relentless mounting spree and the poor girls looked thoroughly unimpressed with the entire arrangement.

So much for my vision of one big, peaceful guinea pig community.

Hopefully once everyone settles down and establishes their new social order, harmony will return.

For now, though, I’m still getting there…